PowerBar_Fitness_Community

Wikipedia® is many a wondrous thing. Today, this online cornucopia of knowledge holds a special tidbit that might be of interest to you. While you might consider your love of action sports to be recreational at best, contributors at Wikipedia make a clear distinction: action equals extreme. Almost laughably, it defines action sports as those that possess some amount of inherent danger.

From BMX riding to windsurfing to snowboarding, these sports aren’t just whimsical pursuits — they require you to be at your physical and mental best each time out, lest you start piling up visits to the emergency room. And this goes well beyond being good at what you do. It means that you have to train your body for the expected rigors of these sports as well as for the unforeseen, and inevitable, wipeouts. It means that you have to flood your body with the right fuel at the right times. And it means that you have to give in to one indisputable fact: to perform like a top-flight athlete, you have to start acting like one.

Extreme Training
Have you ever watched a death-defying X-Games® event, such as skateboarding, and wondered, “How do you ever find out that you can be good at that?” After all, those athletes catching crazy air in the halfpipe had to do it for the first time at some point. Not long after that first drop-in, they likely experienced their first ugly spill. It is the resolve to get up and try again that likely made them great, but today’s athletes are learning that the next trick is easier if their body has been prepped for the rigors of their trade.

Though the aspect of extreme sports that generates the most pride is its counterculturalism, more and more of its participants, particularly at the elite level, are starting to take their training seriously. PowerBar® Team Elite™ snowboarder Steve Fisher, for example, has enjoyed a long and successful career as a result of cross-training. When he’s not on the slopes, he steps out of his boots and he laces up his shoes, taking long runs at altitude to enhance his aerobic capacity. He knows that by training his legs and lungs off the snow, they’ll perform better on it.

The bottom line is that simply going out and doing your action sport of choice — without any supplemental training — can limit how effective or competitive you can be. Instead, try to take a multifaceted approach that involves strength training and regular cardiovascular activity.

Extreme Fueling
It used to be that long-haired teens would show up at the skate park or slopes with little more than an energy drink in hand. But as action sports evolved to include greater television exposure, more press coverage, and bigger paydays, so did the participants. These days, athletes such as Team Elite BMX rider Ben Snowden take advantage of every boost they can, particularly with nutrition. The car runs better, the rationale goes, with clean fuel in the tank.

To maximize performance, riders like Ben are taking a smarter approach to what they eat before, during, and after competition. About 2–3 hours ahead of an event, Ben will knock down at least two cups of water or sports drink to satisfy the ever-crucial hydration requirement. Contrary to what most people think, water is the most important part of athletic, as well as cognitive, performance. A few hours before a big ride, Ben will also consume a good portion of a healthy, carb-based meal, which provides energy for the work ahead. During a longer event, it’s important to take in some additional carbs — elite athletes tend to rely on quick-digesting sources such as PowerBar® Energy Gels. And after an event, Ben and his fellow elite riders will look to replenish energy stores with a PowerBar® Recovery beverage and to rebuild damaged muscle tissue with a PowerBar ProteinPlus® protein bar.

Fueling with the right foods and products — before, during, and after your activity of choice — can enhance energy, increase stamina, and maximize recovery, all of which contribute to greater success in doing what you love.

If you’re an adrenaline-craving competitor at heart, we salute you. But anything worth doing is worth doing right. Don’t just participate — thrive. By taking advantage of proper training and nutrition for your action sports habit, you can move to “the extreme” in no time flat.

For more great info on fueling right, check out the PowerBar playbooks. Also, for more information on PowerBar® Team Elite™ athletes, click on the Team Elite link at PowerBar.com.

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